CarBrandLogos archive · Toyota · 1936

ToyotaToyota AA

A loom company's first passenger car, and no original is known to survive.

Photo: Mytho88 · CC BY-SA 3.0

The story

A defining chapter in Toyota history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Toyota AA, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

Toyota began as a division of Toyoda Automatic Loom Works, and its entry into cars was a study exercise in reverse engineering. Kiichiro Toyoda's team examined contemporary American designs, and the AA that followed shows it: a large four-door sedan with a 3.4-litre Type A straight-six, front engine driving the rear wheels through a three-speed manual, on a chassis derived from Chevrolet practice, wearing a streamlined body clearly influenced by the Chrysler Airflow.

1936 Toyota Model AB Phaeton 01 · Mytho88 · CC BY-SA 3.0

Design and engineering

Three prototypes were completed in 1935 and the AA went into production at Koromo in 1936 as the first passenger car Toyota sold, alongside the related AB phaeton and the trucks that made the money. Volumes were tiny by any standard, and Japan's shift to a war footing meant commercial vehicles quickly took priority.

1943 Toyota Model AC 01 · Mytho88 · CC BY-SA 3.0

In production

No original AA is known to have survived. The car most often photographed is a replica built by Toyota from drawings and surviving components, and a vehicle in a Dutch collection has been the subject of a long dispute over its authenticity. For a company that became the largest carmaker in the world, the absence of its first car is a striking gap.

1943 Toyota Model AC 02 · Mytho88 · CC BY-SA 3.0

At a glance